Windshield wiper arm

ABSTRACT

A windshield wiper for motor vehicle, having a drivably supported wiper arm that carries a wiper blade, wherein the wiper arm at least partly surrounds the wiper blade and is formed by a substantially U-shaped profiled part, characterized in that one leg pointing substantially in a travel direction of the vehicle forms an integrated spoiler, and at least one air outflow opening is disposed in an area of further legs, the one leg has a spoiler lip pointing in a direction of the window to be wiped, and the spoiler lip comprises an elastic material.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a windshield wiper for a vehicle, in particulara motor vehicle.

Windshield wipers of this generic type are known. Typically, they areused to wipe windows of motor vehicles, to assure clear vision for avehicle driver. To that end, the windshield wipers have a wiper arm,which can be set into a swiveling or pendulum motion via a wiper drive.The wiper arm is connected by one end to a wiper shaft solidly connectedto the body, while the other, free end of the wiper arm carries a wiperblade. With respect to the connection between the wiper blade and thewiper arm, various constructions are known, in which either the wiperblade is pivotably connected to the wiper arm, or the wiper arm has asolidly connected wiper blade that is prestressed in the direction ofthe window.

Depending on vehicle styling, the windshield wiper is either partlyconcealed by an extension of a hood over the engine compartment, or thewindshield wiper is disposed in plain sight. Especially in windshieldwipers that are not concealed, they are subject to a relative windduring an intended use of the motor vehicle. This leads to bothersomewind noise, especially at high speed ranges of the motor vehicle.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The windshield wiper according to the invention offers the advantageover the prior art that the flow noise is reduced in a simple way.Because a leg pointing substantially in the travel direction of thevehicle forms an integrated spoiler, and at least one air outflowopening is disposed on the further legs, it advantageously becomespossible for the air stream approaching the wiper arm to be divertedover the wiper arm by means of the embodiment as an integrated spoiler.Depending on the specific design of the spoiler, this preventsbackpressure on the front side of the wiper arm, so that eddydevelopment at flow edges of the wiper arm, which causes noise, issubstantially averted. Furthermore, the embodiment of the integratedspoiler means that the deflection of the air stream generates a contraryforce, which forces the wiper arm in the direction of the window to becleaned, thus generating an additional contact pressure of the wiperblade. Especially at high speeds, this improves the wiping pattern. Theat least one air outflow opening on the other legs that is additionallyprovided, in other words on an upper and/or a rear leg of the wiperarm—in terms of the air approach direction—prevents a buildup ofbackpressure in the interior of the wiper arm that is surrounded by theU-shaped profiled part. This kind of head pressure would lead to a forcecomponent of the wiper arm oriented away from the window to be wiped, sothat the additional opening that prevents this head pressure leads to afurther improvement in the wiping quality.

In a preferred feature of the invention, it is provided that the legthat forms the integrated spoiler has a spoiler lip of an elasticmaterial, pointing in the direction of the window to be wiped. Thisadvantageously makes it possible to minimize any gap between the windowto be wiped and the wiper arm; even if the wiper arm briefly touches thewindow slightly, the spoiler lip absorbs the impact forces, thusaverting damage to the window and/or the wiper arm.

Further preferred features of the invention will become apparent fromthe other characteristics recited in the dependent claims.

DRAWINGS

The invention will be described in further detail below in exemplaryembodiments in conjunction with the associated drawings. Shown are:

FIG. 1, a schematic overview of a windshield wiper;

FIGS. 2-9, schematic perspective views of wiper arms in accordance withdifferent variant embodiments; and

FIGS. 10-13, sectional views through a wiper arm, which holds a wiperblade, in various variant embodiments.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1, for the sake of clear illustration, shows the basic constructionof a windshield wiper 10. The windshield wiper 10 has a wiper arm 12,one end 14 of which is disposed on a wiper shaft 16 in a manner fixedagainst relative rotation. The other, free end 18 of the wiper arm 12carries a wiper blade 20. The wiper blade 20 is retained in a retainingbracket 22, which can be connected releasably and pivotably to the end18 of the wiper arm 12 via a fastening part 24. The pivotable connectionis made via a pivot shaft 26, which extends approximately perpendicularto the wiper shaft 16.

FIG. 1 is intended merely to illustrate the basic structure of awindshield wiper 10 clearly. In other exemplary embodiments, the form ofthe wiper arm 12 can also be selected otherwise. In particular,windshield wipers 10 are known in which the wiper arm 12, over itsentire length, forms a substantially U-shaped profiled part, which atleast partly grips the wiper blade 22. A U-shaped profiled part of thiskind has three legs, of which one leg is disposed substantially in thetravel direction, one leg is disposed substantially opposite the traveldirection, and a third leg connects the two legs to one another and isdisposed substantially above the wiper blade.

Various features of such wiper arms 12 are shown in schematicperspective views and will be described in conjunction with FIGS. 2-9below. From the perspective views, it becomes clear that the wiper arm12 includes a U-shaped profiled part 30, a first leg 32 of which isoriented substantially in the travel direction of a motor vehicle when awindshield wiper 10 is contacting a window to be wiped; an opposed,second leg 34 is disposed correspondingly oppositely; and a third leg 36connects the legs 32 and 34. By means of this U-shaped profiled part 30,a receptacle 38 is formed, the inside of which is engaged at leastpartly by a wiper blade 22, not shown in FIGS. 2-9. Depending on thevariable mode of construction, such as a pivotable connection betweenthe wiper blade 22 and the wiper arm 12 or a non-pivotable connection,the connection point between the wiper arm and the wiper blade hasdifferent structural characteristics, but these will not be addressed indetail within the context of the present description. A further resultis different lengthwise segments of the wiper blade that are covered bythe profiled part 30 of the wiper arm 12.

Only the special features of the wiper arm 12 that are according to theinvention will be addressed below. It is provided here that the profiledpart 30 has at least one opening 40 on its leg 34 and/or on its leg 36.This at least one opening 40 is disposed on the legs 34 and 36, asapplicable, that are not located at the front substantially in thetravel direction of the vehicle. FIG. 2 shows a wiper arm 12 with twoopenings 40 in the leg 34. FIG. 3 shows a wiper arm 12 with threeopenings 40 in the leg 34, while FIG. 4 shows a wiper arm 12 with fiveopenings 40 in the leg 34. A contour of the openings 40 is adapted hereto the course of the legs 34; in other words, the openings 40 can havevarious contours.

In the exemplary embodiment shown in FIGS. 5 and 7, in addition to theopenings 40 in the leg 34, further openings 42 are disposed in the leg36. An alternative embodiment is shown in FIG. 6, where openings 42 areprovided solely in the leg 36.

In FIGS. 8 and 9, exemplary embodiments of so-called high-speedwindshield wipers 10 are shown, whose wiper arms 12 are adaptedaerodynamically to the wiper blades 22. FIG. 9 again shows an exemplaryembodiment in which openings 40 are provided in the leg 34. In theexemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 8, the wiper blade 22 is embodiedintegrally with the wiper arm 12. Once again, at least one opening 40 isprovided here in the region of the leg 34. Because of the aerodynamicdesign of the wiper arm 12, the legs 34, 36 and 32 merge more or lessseamlessly with one another, so that the at least one opening 40 canalso be disposed in a transitional region between the legs 34 and 36.

In conjunction with the ensuing drawings 10-13, sectional views areshown through a wiper arm 12 and a wiper blade 22 surrounded by thewiper arm 12. From these illustrations, the advantageous effects of thedesign according to the invention of the wiper arms 12 will becomeclear.

FIG. 10 shows a variant embodiment in which the U-shaped profiled part30 has openings 40 associated with the rear leg 34 and openings 42associated with the upper leg 36. From the flow lines 50 shown inschematic form for approaching air, it becomes clear that these linesare partly deflected at the aerodynamically designed form of the leg 32and are guided over the wiper arm 12. A gap 52 that remains between theU-shaped profiled part 30 and a window 54 also allows some of the airflow to reach the “interior”, that is, the receptacle 38 of the profiledpart 30. Through the openings 40 and/or 42, this portion of the flow iscarried outside from the receptacle 38, so that inside the receptacle 38no head pressure that would cause the wiper arm 12 to lift away from thewindow 34 can arise.

In FIGS. 11 and 12, two variant embodiments are shown in which only oneopening 40 is provided, only in the rear leg 34. In contrast to theconcave curvature of the leg 32 as shown in FIG. 10, here the legs 32have a convex curvature, so that corresponding flow lines 50 carry theair flow past the wiper arm 12, and the proportion of the air thatreaches the receptacle 38 is carried to the outside through the at leastone opening 40 without building up any head pressure.

In the variant embodiment shown in FIG. 13, a spoiler lip 58, whichcomprises an elastic material, such as plastic, rubber or the like, canadditionally be provided on the lower end 56 of the leg 32. The spoilerlip 58 leads to a reduction in size of the gap 52 between the window 54and the retaining arm 12 in the region of the front leg 32 of theU-shaped profiled part 30. As a result, the portion of the air flow 50that can reach the receptacle 38 of the wiper arm 12 is reduced. At thesame time, in a manner known per se, the spoiler lip 58 acts as a guardfor the window 54, because the relatively hard material of the profiledpart 30 is prevented from striking the window 54 under unfavorable windconditions or in response to a mechanical imposition of force.

In summary, it becomes clear from the exemplary embodiments shown that astreamlined design is obtained by the embodiment of an integratedspoiler in the wiper arm 12. The openings 40 and/or 42 provided preventthe buildup of a head pressure in the receptacle 38 and thus the buildupof a force component oriented counter to a contact pressure at thewindow 54. At the same time, the openings 40 and 42 lead to a weightreduction of the wiper arm 12. The disposition of the openings 40 and 42also provides that in the event of an impact-type load on the wiper arm12 in the direction of the window 54, the wiper arm 12 is capable ofundergoing an elastic and/or plastic deformation, making it possible forthe impact energy imposed to be absorbed. The result is that the risk ofinjury to any persons who might collide with the motor vehicle that hasthese windshield wipers 10 is reduced. Despite the openings 40 and/or 42and the elastic or plastic deformation possibilities, the wiper arm 12is embodied as relatively rigid in the direction of the window 54 in thelongitudinal direction of the wiper arm. This assures a constant, highwiping quality.

What is claimed is:
 1. A windshield wiper for a motor vehicle, having adrivably supported wiper arm that carries a wiper blade, wherein thewiper arm at least partly surrounds the wiper blade and is formed by asubstantially U-shaped profiled part having two legs and a connectingportion, characterized in that one of said legs (32) pointingsubstantially in a travel direction of the vehicle forms an integratedspoiler, and at least one air outflow opening (40, 42) is disposed inthe other of said legs (34, 36), the one leg (32) has a spoiler lip (58)pointing in a direction of the window (54) to be wiped, and the spoilerlip (58) comprises an elastic material, said one leg being free ofholes, said other leg being provided with said at least one air outflowopening, and said connecting portion being free of holes.
 2. Thewindshield wiper of claim 1, characterized in that the one leg (32) isembodied in convex fashion.